“By the time the court rules, that may be discombobulating to our plan,” Bernhardt told The Wall Street Journal in an interview Thursday.

Interior officials will likely have to wait until the legal process plays out or else risk finalizing a five-year plan for offshore drilling that’s out of step with court rulings. As it stands, the March court ruling keeps Arctic waters off-limits unless Congress passes legislation to open them.

“What if you guess wrong?” Bernhardt said. “I’m not sure that’s a very satisfactory and responsible use of resources.”

The news will be welcomed by environmentalists that sued the Trump administration to block Arctic offshore drilling. Conservatives and pro-industry Republicans, however, see it as a major setback.

“It’s not like the Trump administration to give up so easily on something so profoundly important as Energy Dominance and all of the benefits that brings,” Dan Kish, a distinguished senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Especially at a time when gas prices are skyrocketing. Let’s hope they don’t do the same thing with ANWR,” Kish said, referring to plans to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “The anti-energy green left will smell blood.”

Offshore drilling was a key part of Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda, which aims to boost oil and gas production. Under former Secretary Ryan Zinke, Interior officials began crafting a replacement to the Obama administration’s five-year plan for offshore drilling.